


The Truth

by Severa



Series: Self-Indulgent [7]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Loki's parentage, Oneshot, Thor: Ragnarok AU, at least it's an AU for now, we'll see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 08:25:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11710596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severa/pseuds/Severa
Summary: There's a secret Odin's kept and Hela intends to bring it to the light.





	The Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before Ragnarok came out, so I'm currently classifying it as an AU because we don't know what happens in the movie. But it is a little theory of mine. Avoid in case it ends up being a spoiler? If you've purposefully not been watching the trailers, definitely don't read this.

“You should’ve died,” she said, so softly, “A thousand times over, you should’ve died.”

Hela stood at the end of the alley, looming over Odin with a knife to his throat. She spoke not to him, but to the boy at the alley’s mouth who looked in on them. His brother was at his side.

“Why didn’t you die, sweet Prince?”

Her hair hung loose around her face, dark and slick, shielding her expression. Beneath it she smiled. She tapped Odin's cheek with one jagged, blackened nail and his veins bled grey. A touch of Death was her finest gift.

“Let him go!” Thor roared, swinging his mighty hammer until a press of her blade stayed his hand. Blood dripped from Odin’s throat.

“‘Tis rude to interrupt, Thunderer. Be silent. I speak to Loki, and Loki alone.” She turned her face and saw them both, joined in an effort against her. Odin strained to gaze on them as well. “Again I ask: why didn’t you die?”

“Luck?” Loki suggested, speaking quickly before Thor could open his blundering mouth again. “Godhood? What does it matter?”

When he stepped further into the alleyway, a wash of magic did away with his black Midgardian fashion. He stood before Hela, goddess of Death, in his green robes and golden armor. His horns arched high. He knew his only useful weapons were his words.

“Have I cheated you?” he asked, gesturing vaguely with his hands. She saw the magic spark green between his fingertips. “T'would be a lie to say I am not glad for it.”

“Death cannot be cheated,” she warned, smiling so sweetly.

“Then why say I should’ve died, when I’ve not?”

Thor moved again to charge, but Loki’s outstretched arm stayed him. Thunder cracked. He now stood in his red regalia, representing Asgard well.

“Tell him,” Hela bade of her victim, the fallen All-Father, “Tell him the truth, Odin, lest I give you true reason for silence.”

“The truth?” Loki wondered, preventing the response Odin floundered for. “Death knows all, does she not?”

“You flatter me.”

“Aye. But I make it my business to know all, as well. How can a liar lie without knowing the truth?”

Her grip around Odin’s scruff was tighter. Perhaps she was pressing her blade too harshly - Odin choked and Thor tried to press beyond his brother.

“Loki-”

“Thor.”

“You claim knowledge? Who was your father, then?” she asked archly, ignoring Asgard’s crown prince.

Loki’s gaze could only be described as hesitant. Yet he straightened at the shoulders and tipped his chin up, pretending that his appearance betrayed no wounds.

“Laufey, the Winter-King of Joutenheim.” he reported, cool and clear. “I killed him.”

“And t'was a fine gift to find his corpse in my hall, sweet boy.” She crooned. Mercifully, she dropped Odin upon the pavement and stood tall. His palor was like stone. “What of your mother?”

This gave everybody pause. The silence was deafening enough that even Thor’s mighty gusto was dampened. Odin failed to deliver the truth. Hela laughed as Loki gave some sorry answer.

“Frigga, Queen of Asgard, was the only mother I ever knew.”

The laughter grew. Hela could hear it in his voice - that uncertainty that came with realization. The dread. The horror.

“You should’ve died,” she said again, breezing her way through space until she stood before him, “A thousand times over, you should’ve died.”

She touched his chin. Long, spidery fingers felt the sharp edge of his jaw, ghosting touches over his cheekbones. He was stone; he did not move under the touch of Death, but neither did he die. He could not.

“What is borne of Death cannot be living,” she crooned. In him, she saw her eyes. That green, ravenous magic that he had inherited and sculpted for his own means. “And the dead cannot die.”

He swallowed hard. His brother - adopted brother, wretched Odinson - threw his hammer and she caught it in her bare hand.

It shattered in her grasp.

“Hello, darling.”

“Hello…” Loki responded stiffly, fighting to keep down his terror, "Mother.”


End file.
